


Snowfall

by kinsale_42



Series: Khadgar [2]
Category: World of Warcraft
Genre: F/M, Gift Giving, Holidays, Magic, Romance, Snow, The Feast of Winter Veil, Winterspring
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-25
Updated: 2016-12-25
Packaged: 2018-09-12 02:21:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9051430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kinsale_42/pseuds/kinsale_42
Summary: Khadgar and Kinsale meet for an evening away from their busy daily lives to enjoy some quiet time and exchange gifts during the Feast of Winter Veil.Excerpt of "Amplification"





	

  
  
They had agreed to meet in Winterspring for an evening meal. Not that the inn was anything special, but it was Winter Veil and the snowy backwoods landscape seemed seasonally appropriate, and it was well off the beaten path. Khadgar arrived first, of course, being able to travel direct. He sat down in the corner of the inn, and pulled a small violet silk pouch out of the inside of his robe. He tipped its contents into his hand, and turned the item over and over in his hand, examining every detail closely. He sensed Kinsale's arrival well before she reached the inn, and slipped the object into its pouch and tucked it away again in plenty of time.

The inn door swung open, and Kinsale blew in with a little swirl of snow. Her cheeks were pink from the cold but her eyes sparkled and she smiled with delight when she saw Khadgar waiting for her. He stood to greet her with a warm hug and a kiss, which she readily reciprocated. They sat across the table from each other, the heat from the inn's blazing wood stove warming them both equally. The serving maid brought them a pitcher of ale and two mugs, and returned in another moment with two steaming bowls of stew and a loaf of crusty bread.

The food was good and warmed them, but as usually happened, being together warmed them more. It was a challenge to snatch moments like these away from the demands and obligations of life during wartime. When they were successful, the very act of getting away gave them a rush. The ale only intensified the effect.

"We should go for a walk! It was just beginning to snow when I came in on the Dimensional Rifter." Kinsale reached across the table for Khadgar's hand. One of her favorite winter treats was walking in the snow at night, when everything was light like daytime. Her other hand slid into her pocket and pulled out a handful of coins, enough to pay for their meal and leave a generous gratuity besides. She dropped them on the table and pulled Khadgar off his bench towards the door. He followed willingly.

It was still snowing when they stepped outside, the flakes drifting slowly down in the cold, still air. Two inches or more had collected since they had arrived, but it was light and fluffy and easy to walk through. The torches of Everlook reflecting off the ice crystals made the air appear full of showering sparks. They walked out through the town gates and down the white-blanketed road into the forest where the evergreen trees stood like silent sentries in their frozen cloaks. No one else was out, and their boots squeaking in the snow was the loudest sound they could hear. Khadgar listened closely and could just detect the faint crystalline whispering sound of the flakes falling. He'd never realized how much he'd missed winter in the unchanging seasons of Outland.

The air was cold, but not so far below freezing that they were not warmed by their exercise. Their breaths puffed out white before them as they walked, hand in hand. A path broke off from the road ahead, leading off towards the old elvish ruins, visible only by the depression in the fresh snow and the intermittent exposed parts where it ran in the shelter of the trees. Kinsale and Khadgar looked at each other, and without needing words they agreed, and turned off the road.

The trail climbed a small hill through the deepening shadow of the forest, and Khadgar called a glow to his staff to light their way. When at least they reached the top of the hill, the trees fell away to reveal the frozen lake and its frozen ruins. The snow had stopped for a time, and a break in the clouds allowed the light of the White Lady, the larger of Azeroth's two moons, to shine down over the silent landscape and set the ruins aglow with an ethereal radiance. Khadgar allowed his staff to go dim once more as they stopped to absorb the scene.

After a few minutes he turned to her. Reaching into his robe, he pulled out the silk pouch once more. "Kins, I brought something for you," he said, and placed the tiny bag, still warm from his body, into her hand. She looked up into his face and down at the pouch and back into his face again before she tugged the cords open and tipped the contents out into her palm.

The mana gem that had brought them together lay sparkling in her palm, only now it was covered in a delicate tracery of truesilver that glinted in the moonlight, and was attached to a fine silver chain. She caught her breath. "Our gem! It's so beautiful now." Kinsale looked back up into his eyes, smiling. "Thank you! I have missed it."

"It would not be here without you. It has been made an everlasting gem by your use and yours alone. I had the jewelers in Dalaran create this truesilver filigree to my design, with a runic pattern that allows you to use the gem to transport yourself directly to my quarters in the Violet Citadel, even through all the spell wards. It is the safest place in Dalaran, if not all Azeroth, and I want you to have access, whether or not I am there. If I am there, you may have other reasons for wanting to visit." Khadgar's eyes twinkled, and he very nearly winked at her.

"It's perfect. And I didn't realize I would change it by using it as I did, but I am glad it will last." The chain was long enough to slip over her head, so she did so without worrying about undoing the clasp. The gem fell again just over her heart, where she had carried it, unadorned, in a tiny sack on a cord for so long. It felt like it had come home again. Kinsale sighed. "I have something for you too," she said, reaching into the scrip she wore on her belt. "I wish it was as special and unique as your gift, but at the very least it should be a comfort. At its best it ought to be useful, too." She handed him a small wooden box, not much larger than the violet silk bag she now tucked away in a pocket.

He lifted the lid and in the light still pouring down through the break in the clouds he saw a round, silvery disk on a bed of soft wool. He carefully lifted the coin-sized object out of its box and examined it closely. On its face was an embossed silver hand, and a blessing was etched on its reverse.

"It's a token of the Silver Hand," Kinsale explained. "It is arcanite, imbued with the Light such that it can be called upon in times of need, when your life or soul is in danger. Just touch it and speak the words of the blessing on the back. I...I tried to make it so that it would alert me at such a time, but I don't know if I can actually make something like that work. We will have to rely on our other means of communication." Their telepathic link had become truly solid in the not-quite-five months they'd had to adjust to it, but they both worried it would be unavailable when it was truly needed, as it had been in the attack on the Legion command ship.

Khadgar turned the token over into his other palm and ran his finger over the inscription. The hand holding the round of arcanite suddenly became brighter than the moonlight on the snow, and warm as though it were held against a flame. He was startled, nearly dropping the token but catching it just as it slipped through his fingers. He took the token away from his left hand again, and the light dimmed by half, but his palm still glowed, or rather, an irregular oblong shape in the center of his palm still glowed.

Kinsale's eyes widened as she saw the outline become apparent. She grabbed his hand to get a better look. "But that's...I didn't think...I didn't mean..." She stumbled over her words, unable to find what she meant to say. She swallowed as Khadgar looked at her in amazement. "I didn't think it would actually do that. I'm sorry."

"What is it?" he asked.

"It looks like...well, I think it is a fragment of my soul. From before I went on that mission in Suramar, the one where we destroyed the internment camp. I was so worried as I was waiting for the patrol to come through the market, I imagined taking a piece of myself and securing it with you. I needed to calm myself down so I wouldn't risk the mission, and it worked. I felt much clearer after I went through the process in my head. I just sort of imagined how I thought warlocks made soul stones. I had no idea it would actually work, especially with you at a great distance." She let his hand go, and he lifted it and peered intently at it like it was something he had never seen before.

Absentmindedly, he said, "I was at no great distance. I was just above you, perched on a ledge. In raven form." He held his hand up higher, observing how the light reacted to him flexing his hand, noting how he could not feel the presence of any foreign object.

"I can remove it if you wish, I'm sure it would just be a matter of reversing the imagery." Kinsale felt terrible for invading Khadgar's person without his permission or even his knowledge.

His eyes returned immediately to her face, with all the focus they had given his hand. "If you don't mind, I would like to keep it. I am truly honored that you felt more secure after giving it to me in the first place. It would be a tremendous comfort to me to continue to carry it." With his luminous hand he stroked her cheek. "And I can only imagine that it would empower this token with greater potential." He laughed. "How you can just think of working a magic you are not trained to execute and be successful at it...I am dumbfounded. You have a gift with the Light, and clearly your decades of training have ingrained its workings so deeply that you can bend it intuitively in ways that more conscious users would never think to." He bent to kiss her gently. "I thank you for this gift," he said. "It is the most precious thing I have ever been given."

The clouds above had drifted closed again, and as they embraced each other there on the overlook, the snow began to float down upon them once more.


End file.
